Michael Haneke

Might this be Haneke's year? The lupine, gimlet-eyed Austrian was the hot favourite to win the Palme d'Or for Hidden in 2005 and scooped the grand prix four years earlier for The Piano Teacher. His latest, The White Ribbon, installs a rural German school as a breeding ground for fascism. The fact that Isabelle Huppert – the star of two Haneke movies – is jury president won't hurt his chances either.

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